On the Economy of Machinery and Manufactures

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About this book

On the Economy of Machinery and Manufactures is by Charles Babbage and is dated 1832. The preface says that the volume may be considered as one of the consequences that have resulted from the calculating engine, the construction of which the author has long been superintending. The preface also says that visits were made to a considerable number of workshops and factories, both in England and on the Continent, to become acquainted with the various resources of mechanical art.

A passage on glass cutting says that the art of using the diamond for cutting glass has undergone, within a few years, a very important improvement. The text says that the possibility of performing arithmetical calculations by machinery may appear to non-mathematical readers to be rather too large a postulate, and notes that it is connected with the subject of the division of labour.

About the author

Charles Babbage

Charles Babbage (1791-1871) was an English mathematician, inventor, and philosopher, often called the father of the computer for his designs of the Difference Engine and Analytical Engine. He also helped found the Royal Astronomical Society and wrote widely on science, economics, and manufacturing.